Global exports of UK television productions to China rose by a staggering 40% in 2013/14, but the US remains the single biggest international market for UK shows. The figures, published by the independent producers’ trade association Pact, show that overall TV exports rose by 5% in 2013/14.
The pilot for new US drama series Knifeman is filming on location at West London Film Studios in the UK. Tom Hollander will play real-life 18th Century Scottish surgeon John Hunter in a story based on the biography The Knife Man: Blood, Body-Snatching and the Birth of Modern Surgery.
Mammoth Screen will film new period drama Poldark on location in Bristol and Cornwall in south-west England for the BBC. Company Pictures recently filmed at The Bottle Yard Studios for Channel 4’s period miniseries New Worlds.
A third series of period drama Mr Selfridge has been commissioned by British broadcaster ITV and will return to filming locations in north London and the Historic Chatham Dockyard in Kent. The series stars US actor Jeremy Piven as the real-life founder of department store Selfridge & Co.
Shoots for international shows like Elementary accounted for most of the TV spending in the UK in 2013 as a result of the new TV tax credit, according to the British Film Institute. Just over GBP230 million was spent by TV productions and nearly 65% of this came from international shoots.
The continuing success of the BBC’s modern-day detective series Sherlock could help boost film tourism in London. Nearly ten million UK viewers watched the opening third-series episode broadcast on 1 January 2014 and the series starts in the US later this month.
American crime drama Elementary has become the latest production to film on location in Trafalgar Square in central London. The modern-day Sherlock Holmes series is usually filmed in New York but has shot in the UK for the opening of its second season.
American TV series Elementary will film its season two opener on location in London. Launched by CBS after the success of the BBC’s Sherlock, the show's famous crime-solver remains British, but he usually works as a police consultant in modern-day New York and is a recovering alcoholic.